A recent innovation in the packaging field is the pre-packaging of items which previously were sold singly or in bulk. For example, screws, hinges, pills and other pharmaceuticals, ribbon and other sewer's supplies, kitchen utensils and other household supplies, foodstuffs, dental supplies, and a wide variety of other goods now frequently are packaged using automatic machinery, by positioning them between strips of material which are then bonded to each other. Typically, such packaging may take the form of a so-called "blister pack" in which the bottom strip is more or less flat while the top strip in the region of each unit is formed into a domed contour to accomodate the object which it contains. Such "bubbles" may be preformed, or may be formed as the strips are joined together. It has been found particularly advantageous to make them from clear plastic material since such material may be made sufficiently rigid to provide a defined housing in which the object may reside without the bubble itself bearing directly thereon with too high a pressure, and since it affords good and unobstructed viewing of the package contents. It is also known to produce such packages in the form of continuous strips. Thus, for example, it has become a practice to package medication, vitamins, and other pharmaceutical products in pill form of pre-determined dosage in long strips of blister packs, which are severable from each other, have a substantially flat cardboard base, and have a clear domed plastic sheet laminated to the top of the base to form a series of compartments for the products being packaged.
Recently there has emerged a need for removing the contents of such blister packs by automated machinery. Thus, for example, if a product is to be taken off the market and it is desired to recover all of the material so as to destroy it, or if the written matter included in the package is erroneous but the contents are good and of sufficient value, it is desired to recover the contents by fast, effective, inexpensive means, in order to avoid the cost and other objections of doing so manually.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a means for removing the contents of blister packs.
Another objective is to provide such means in a form which may be automated.